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The Odyssey (2026)

Premise: The grand myth of a soldier's attempt to find home after the Trojan war.

Rating: An All-Timer

You know the Odyssey.  Even if you didn't read it (which I didn't), it's such a foundational story that everything has been borrowing from it for 3000 years, so concepts from it are familiar even if you think you don't know it.  And in this particular telling, it somehow remains riveting and interesting.  But it's not because of plot, it's because of structure.

This film is very much in Nolan's style.  The narrative isn't chronological, so when the film starts, you're getting exposition and setting the story in motion, without actually knowing where in the timeline you are.  Rather than the reveals coming in the form of plot, they're coming in the form of meaning.  You will see the first half of a scene, and then an hour later, you will see the remainder of that scene, but after seeing a bunch of things that have now changed the context.  There are still twists, which is amazing when you already know what's going to happen.  The closest thing I can think of is how Greta Gerwig's Little Women (2019) takes a classic work that has been told and retold and still found a way to tell it out of order to give it new meaning.

While it has some artistic choices that I'll get into in a minute and it does make some small changes to the story to better adapt to the medium of film, this is undeniably the Odyssey and it's so good that it's like "OK, we've done this."  This can be watched by kids in high school from here to come.  I watched a movie a few years back called The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and though it was old and in Italian, it was a timeless and complete dramatization of the life of Jesus Christ.  You could do it again, with better special effects, in a different language, through a different lens, etc -- but the story was told; it was done.  This feel similarly complete and definitive.

You have probably heard about the controversies about the casting and the production design and the casual nature of the dialogue.  There is a lot of bad-faith critique about certain people in the cast, but there is merit to the greater discourse about how the film attempts to contemporize the subject matter.  Despite the film's undeniable quality, there is an artistic choice being made that is different than other similar adaptations in the swords and sandals sub-genre and whether or not you are able to embrace this series of choices will affect your general enjoyment of the film.  It's important to understand that The Odyssey is not history.  Homer probably wasn't even a singular person.  It's debatable that Helen of Troy even existed.  However, this story is oft considered pseudo-historical, because it deals with real time-periods and places.

Nolan makes an artistic choice to lean into the epic fantasy part of things and treat it like a fable, rather than focusing on it as a grounded story set in a real history.  The cast is diverse but also modern in their approach.  You have probably heard about Helen of Troy being portrayed by a black woman or a trans man having the role of soldier.  But it's much bigger than that.  Tom Holland is as much part of this choice as any casting that focuses on minorities.  As are the choices in costuming and set design.

There is a shortcut in American cinema to make things feel ancient or historic -- you employ British accents and you have your characters speak extra proper and regal, even if it's a casual conversation.  So, a scene might say "Father, let us dine under the watch of our ancestors."  And in Nolan's the Odyssey, the character would say "Dad, let's eat outside."  This, along with casting is going to be a non-starter for some people.  However, for me, all of this worked incredibly well.  It made the movie very easy to understand, it made the humor land and kept things from getting stuffy.  And it let me connect emotionally with what was happening.  Additionally, Lupita Nyong'o playing Helen just works.  She's beautiful and striking in a way that just looks completely different than other characters in the film.  Her looks stand out, which, in the treating-this-as-an-epic-fable sense, is a spot-on decision.  And then there are reveals about her that make you gasp and she has a third act moment that is incredible.  She steals her scenes.  Similarly, with Tom Holland, he plays his role in a way that just wouldn't fit in Game of Thrones.  The Trojan Horse doesn't look like what you would craft in a period-appropriate setting amidst a war.  And the armor might not be what would have actually been worn, but it helps identify the characters and elevate certain ones to an almost God-like status.  This is both an artistic choice, while also being explainable as an unreliable narrator recounting decades-old events while on drugs.

The Odyssey is a series of vignettes and trials that Odysseus faces and each one is handled with extreme care.  The film looks incredible and Nolan employs practical effects seemingly wherever possible.  Each one is separate in tone, but some of my favorites lean into out-right horror.  Circe and the Sirens were some of my favorite depictions, but the next person could just as believably choose The Cyclops or the Laestrygonians as theirs.  ...or any of several others.  Everything is done with the utmost amount of care.  And for something that we've seen in pop-culture over and over again, each of these was conceptualized from the ground up.  The way that the Cyclops looks or how the Sirens are portrayed or how the Trojan Horse is deployed -- each was presented in a way that didn't match my pre-conceptions.

All in all, the movie is just outright entertaining and the hero of the film, over all of its other merits, is Nolan's structuring of the story.  The ending is satisfying, and it all comes together and still manages to deliver surprises and insight.  It will go down as an all-time great, like Spartacus (1960) or Ben Hur (1959).  And yes, you could re-make this story again in 20 years with an all new cast of Greek actors and treat it more as a historical epic employing the traditional shortcuts that lean into accuracy.  That would produce a different result that might be as good, but it's not necessary.  It's done.

I'm more excited for this movie than any for several years. I've been wanting a big epic film.

Dave, did you see it in one of the imax theaters?

A nuanced answer, but "no" is the most accurate.

There are only 25 true IMAX theaters in the US.  One of them is about 45 minutes away from me, but it's booked way out and I don't like how they (historically at least) manage where you sit, so I don't love the experience of having to get there super early and stress about seating.

We have "lie"MAX, but I find it pretty comparable to any premium format.  I saw it in something called XD, which is the biggest and best screen at my local theater.  It was big and bombastic, whatever it was.

I also saw 70mm advertised but I'm pretty sure that my screening was digital.

I saw Dunkirk many years ago on actual 35mm film, projected with the sound and flicker and everything.  It was an interesting experience but I'm not a videophile snob enough to really differentiate it all that much.

This is a film I'd watch at the Fork N Screen at Disney's AMC Theaters